Search result: Catalogue data in Spring Semester 2020
Computational Science and Engineering Master  | ||||||
 Fields of Specialization | ||||||
| Physics of the Atmosphere | ||||||
| Number | Title | Type | ECTS | Hours | Lecturers | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 701-1216-00L | Numerical Modelling of Weather and Climate | W | 4 credits | 3G | C. Schär, S. Soerland, J. Vergara Temprado | |
| Abstract | The course provides an introduction to weather and climate models. It discusses how these models are built addressing both the dynamical core and the physical parameterizations, and it provides an overview of how these models are used in numerical weather prediction and climate research. As a tutorial, students conduct a term project and build a simple atmospheric model using the language PYTHON. | |||||
| Learning objective | At the end of this course, students understand how weather and climate models are formulated from the governing physical principles, and how they are used for climate and weather prediction purposes. | |||||
| Content | The course provides an introduction into the following themes: numerical methods (finite differences and spectral methods); adiabatic formulation of atmospheric models (vertical coordinates, hydrostatic approximation); parameterization of physical processes (e.g. clouds, convection, boundary layer, radiation); atmospheric data assimilation and weather prediction; predictability (chaos-theory, ensemble methods); climate models (coupled atmospheric, oceanic and biogeochemical models); climate prediction. Hands-on experience with simple models will be acquired in the tutorials. | |||||
| Lecture notes | Slides and lecture notes will be made available at Link | |||||
| Literature | List of literature will be provided. | |||||
| Prerequisites / Notice | Prerequisites: to follow this course, you need some basic background in atmospheric science, numerical methods (e.g., "Numerische Methoden in der Umweltphysik", 701-0461-00L) as well as experience in programming. Previous experience with PYTHON is useful but not required. | |||||
| 701-1232-00L | Radiation and Climate Change | W | 3 credits | 2G | M. Wild | |
| Abstract | This lecture focuses on the prominent role of radiation in the energy balance of the Earth and in the context of past and future climate change. | |||||
| Learning objective | The aim of this course is to develop a thorough understanding of the fundamental role of radiation in the context of Earth's energy balance and climate change. | |||||
| Content | The course will cover the following topics: Basic radiation laws; sun-earth relations; the sun as driver of climate change (faint sun paradox, Milankovic ice age theory, solar cycles); radiative forcings in the atmosphere: aerosol, water vapour, clouds; radiation balance of the Earth (satellite and surface observations, modeling approaches); anthropogenic perturbation of the Earth radiation balance: greenhouse gases and enhanced greenhouse effect, air pollution and global dimming; radiation-induced feedbacks in the climate system (water vapour feedback, snow albedo feedback); climate model scenarios under various radiative forcings. | |||||
| Lecture notes | Slides will be made available, lecture notes for part of the course | |||||
| Literature | As announced in the course | |||||
| 701-1228-00L | Cloud Dynamics: Hurricanes | W | 4 credits | 3G | U. Lohmann | |
| Abstract | Hurricanes are among the most destructive elements in the atmosphere. This lecture will discuss the physical requirements for their formation, life cycle, damage potential and their relationship to global warming. It also distinguishes hurricanes from thunderstorms and tornadoes. | |||||
| Learning objective | At the end of this course students will be able to distinguish the formation and life cycle mechanisms of tropical cyclones from those of extratropical thunderstorms/cyclones, project how tropical cyclones change in a warmer climate based on their physics and evaluate different tropical cyclone modification ideas. | |||||
| Content | see course outline at: https://iac.ethz.ch/edu/courses/master/modules/cloud-dynamics | |||||
| Lecture notes | Slides will be made available | |||||
| Literature | A literature list can be found here: https://www.iac.ethz.ch/edu/courses/master/modules/cloud_dynamics | |||||
| Prerequisites / Notice | At least one introductory lecture in Atmospheric Science or Instructor's consent. This lecture will build on some concepts of atmospheric dynamics and their governing equations. Thus, mathematical knowledge will be needed to use the equations to understand the material of the course. | |||||
| 701-1270-00L | High Performance Computing for Weather and Climate | W | 3 credits | 3G | O. Fuhrer | |
| Abstract | State-of-the-art weather and climate simulations rely on large and complex software running on supercomputers. This course focuses on programming methods and tools for understanding, developing and optimizing the computational aspects of weather and climate models. Emphasis will be placed on the foundations of parallel computing, practical exercises and emerging trends such as heterogeneous comput | |||||
| Learning objective | After attending this course, students will be able to: - understand a broad variety of high performance computing concepts relevant for weather and climate simulations - work with weather and climate simulation codes that run on large supercomputers | |||||
| Content | HPC Overview: - Why does weather and climate require HPC? - Today's HPC: Beowulf-style clusters, massively parallel architectures, hybrid computing, accelerators - Scaling / Parallel efficiency - Algorithmic motifs in weather and climate Writing HPC code: - Data locality and single node efficiency - Shared memory parallelism with OpenMP - Distributed memory parallelism with MPI - GPU computing - High-level programming and domain-specific languages | |||||
| Literature | - Introduction to High Performance Computing for Scientists and Engineers, G. Hager and G. Wellein, CRC Press, 2011 - Computer Organization and Design, D.H. Patterson and J.L. Hennessy - Parallel Computing, A. Grama, A. Gupta, G. Karypis, V. Kumar (https://www-users.cs.umn.edu/~karypis/parbook/) - Parallel Programming in MPI and OpenMP, V. Eijkhout (http://pages.tacc.utexas.edu/~eijkhout/pcse/html/index.html) | |||||
| Prerequisites / Notice | - fundamentals of numerical analysis and atmospheric modeling - basic experience in a programming language (C/C++, Fortran, Python, …) - experience using command line interfaces in *nix environments (e.g., Unix, Linux) | |||||
| 401-5930-00L | Seminar in Physics of the Atmosphere for CSE | W | 4 credits | 2S | H. Joos, C. Schär | |
| Abstract | In this seminar, the process of writing a scientific proposal will be introduced. The essential elements of a proposal, including the peer review process, will be outlined and class exercises will train scientific writing skills. Knowledge exchange between class participants is promoted through the preparation of a master thesis proposal and evaluation of each other's work. | |||||
| Learning objective | Scientific writing skills How to effectively write a scientific proposal | |||||
| Content | In this seminar, the process of writing a scientific proposal will be introduced. The essential elements of a proposal, including the peer review process, will be outlined and class exercises will train scientific writing skills. Knowledge exchange between class participants is promoted through the preparation of a master thesis proposal and evaluation of each other's work. | |||||
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